Tag Archives: Cambodia

So, this will be my longest time ever away from home, I mean, more than two whole months! Man, that’s just crazy to think about. We’ll be staying with some friends that are living in Bandung, which is just west of Jakarta, Indonesia’s Capitol. We aren’t just going to stay in Indonesia, we’re going to go to some other countries in Southeast Asia too: Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos on a 25 day tour.

We’ve been planning, preparing, and prepping like crazy! Mainly, all the “P’s.” But, the worst part of the “P’s” is IMMUNIZATIONS. Blugh.💉 I was worrying and dreading and worrying and dreading and worrying and dreading and worrying and dreading! But, when we got to the doctors office, it turns out that for one of the shots, you could trade out for pills! And the other shots that aren’t pills, are only for grown ups! Two of the pills that we take now are typhoid and malaria. So much for that worrying and dreading.

The other thing is food. I’ve got to get used to Indonesian food! In order to get ready, we’ve been having more Asian, and more spicy foods. For example, the other day we had spicy Asian stir fry, which wasn’t a really big deal because I don’t mind heat, I kinda like things spicy! My mom even made our green beans spicy with Sriracha.

We leave soon (May 11th!), so I’ve got to get to packing, I mean, I just packed for two weeks in Japan, now I gotta pack for two months for Southeast Asia.

Hooray! We have made more plans: We are heading out to Indonesia for a couple of months and will be spending a three and a half week chunk of that time on a tour of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. This is all so exciting!

Warning: the following blog is full of obnoxious and unresolved tedium. I may be ranting rather than blogging.

In preparation for travels, we are following the CDC recommendations for vaccinations. We are all up to date with regular vaccines and were easily able to acquire the oral Typhoid vaccine as well as the Malaria meds for all of us and the Hep A for those that didn’t have it yet. Yay.

Paul getting his Hepatitis A vaccine

We are so blessed to have amazing health care coverage. Wait for the “but”…

But…it was all smooth sailing until we tried to get the vaccine for Japanese Encephalitis.

This is an illness that is considered endemic in many Asian countries. It is carried by mosquitos and incidences go up when the rains come down and more so away from cities, especially in and near rice patties. As we will specifically be in these areas at the beginning of the rainy season (the beginning of peak season for the disease) we and our doctors thought it would be good to get this vaccination in addition to the others. No biggie, right?

OK, seriously, I have spent over twelve hours on the phone over the last three days trying to obtain this vaccine in a way that is covered by insurance. We have been through four different pharmacies, multiple phone calls to our medical practice, and many hours on the phone with insurance. Each time I speak to the insurance company I think I have been helped and guided in the right direction, only to find out that isn’t the correct information once we have contacted the next pharmacy location! Then I get further info, with a more restrictive set of directions to follow and repeat the process again. This pharmacy isn’t covered, that one is. That pharmacy doesn’t carry that vaccine at all, oh, that pharmacy that has the vaccine in stock isn’t actually covered for this item as it has to be billed through medical, not prescription, and they aren’t allowed to do so, oh that pharmacy is covered but not really, now you have to go to a certain kind of clinic, wait, that clinic doesn’t take insurance at all (wait, why are they on my preferred provider list then?), and so on.

Gah! This is ridiculous, people!

Why don’t we just pay for it out of pocket? Because one shot is almost $300. Ouch! Besides, isn’t that why we pay to have insurance?

And, as I said earlier, this is not a solved issue yet. I will let you know what the end result is later. Sigh.